Employment rises in CEE and the EU

Despite the weak economic performance, the EUs employment rate stood at 75.3% in 2023, up 0.7 percentage points compared with 2022. This is the highest level in the entire available time series according to Eurostat. In the region the average employment was at 70% in 2023, lower compared to the EU average. Moreover, compared to the pre-pandemic levels employment increased in most of the CEE countries. Only in Czechia it was at the same level in 2023 (75.1%), while in Romania it dropped to 63%. At the same time, Czechia has the highest employment in the region, while Romania is at the opposite side. Next to Romania, Serbia and Croatia have the employment level below 70%. The regional comparison brings also interesting insights as among the EU regions, the Polish capital region of Warszawski stoeczny had the highest employment rate last year at 86.5%. The second highest rate was found in Bratislavsk kraj in Slovakia (85.8%). That comes in contrast with the eastern regions of these two countries where employment is slightly above 70%, that is below the countries averages.